Shadows

Several month ago, twenty stories below New York City, in the tunnel world inhabited by the deformed band of mutants known as the Morlocks, an agonizing battle drew to its conclusion.
It was an impossible battle. Mikhail Rasputin's bid for suicide. Mikhail's decision of genocide for the Morlocks. For if you had ever heard the teachings of Charles Xavier, then Mikhail's ravings only rang hollow.
As an X-Man, you hoped for, fought for, a better tomorrow, with every ounce of strength, with every last breath. So on that fateful day, the X-Men escaped to carry on the battle for the betterment of mutant kind.
And the Morlocks?
Deprived of any choice...they were swept away by the torrent of water as it crashed through their tunnel homes.
Thornn remembers that day well. It was a bitter irony, Thornn thought, as the black waters of the East River swallowed her whole, that the last face she saw that horrible day was the face of the child, Sarah. She had no mutant powers that any of them knew of. And yet, they were all drawn to her. Somehow in this hostile world created in the sewers beneath New York, among the stench and hatred that they all breathed...Sarah knew something about love.
That's where Mikhail was wrong about the Morlocks. They weren't all monsters. They didn't need to be snuffed out like rabid animals. For if a tiny flower like Sarah could grow among those brutal weeds, there was hope that the Morlocks would someday rejoin the outside world.
A hope that vanished on that day...
...or did it?

Time passes. Other tragedies and triumphs fill the X-Men's lives. Thus, the true fate of the Morlocks will not be found out by Xavier's team of mutants, but by the time-travelling, in your face, take no prisoners Warrior, known as Cable.

Cable tries, for the third time, to tie the necktie around his neck, while Sam Guthrie laughs at his nervousness.
"Whose ridiculous idea was this anyway? Mine, of course. But I never thought, in a million years, that she'd say yes." Cable says, as he straightens the tie.
"If you don't mind my sayin' so, Sir, but wasn it you who taught us never to underestimate the enemy...or women?" Sam asks.
"Sam, I've gone up against them all. The Upstarts, Apocalypse, Stryfe himself. And they're nothing compared to what I've let myself in for tonight." Cable tells him.
"Maybe I'm missin' somethin' but you have been out on lots of dates with Domino." Sam says.
"Wrong. That was Vanessa, using her shape-shifting powers to take Domino's place." Cable replies quietly.
"I'm sorry. I had actually forgotten." Sam tells him.
"Don't be sorry. I sometimes forget, too. She played the part so well. But can you imagine how Domino must feel? Held prisoner for a year while her double carried on her life? No. If I have any hope of tonight going smoothly, Vanessa's name had better not come up." Cable says, taking his jacket from the hanger.
"I'm sure you'll have a great time. We been through a lot lately. You deserve a night off. But, before you go, do we need to talk about a curfew?" Sam asks.
"Sam!" Cable replies, and before Sam's incredulous eyes, he actually sees Cable blush.

Three doors down the hall, in Theresa Cassidy's room, Dom puts the finishing touches on her make-up.
"Whose ridiculous idea was this anyway? His, of course. Like everything else around here. But, I've got nobody else to blame other than myself for saying yes." Dom puts the lip-stick back in her purse and turns to face Theresa. "This is a mistake, Terry. Nathan and I have been friends, and more, for a long time, but we just fell into it. It was natural. This is different. Thanks for letting me use your room. I didn't want Nathan to see this new dress, until tonight."
"It's nae' a problem, Dom. But ye share the man's room, why so nervous aboot a simple date?" Theresa asks.
"Trust me. It gets complicated. We're friends...and lovers, but...getting romantically involved with someone you work with..particularly in our line of work..." Dom stutters.
"Yeah, but--" Theresa tries to get a word in.
"Things are dangerous enough, right?" Dom asks.
"But, I--" Theresa begins again.
"He's had so many people in his life hurt him." Dom says.
"Have you?" Theresa asks.
"Without meaning to, I don't want to become one of them." Dom replies quietly.
"How?" Theresa asks.
"If...I don't know...I...died...or something...it...I know what it did to him when...oh, God! I don't even know what I'm trying to say." Dom perches on Theresa's dresser.
"I think th--" Theresa starts to say.
"On the other hand, I'm a grown woman, right? We're both adults, right?" Dom asks.
"Ye sho--" Theresa begins, yet again.
"Thanks a lot, Terry. You really helped me sort this out." Dom tells her.
"...Anytime.." Theresa says, trying not to laugh at her nervousness.
"Okay, I'm just going to relax, have a good time, and let the night take--" *KNOCK* *KNOCK* "Oh, my God! He's here!" Dom jumps down and turns to look in the mirror once again, takes a deeeeep breath, closes her eyes, says a little prayer, releases the breath and, quite elegantly crosses to the door and opens it.
"Let's go, we're running late and......" Cable feels his jaw drops to just below his knees somewhere as he takes in the sheer sight of her.

Dom allows a slow, seductive smile to spread across her face as she decides that the expensive, violet, bare-shouldered evening gown and gloves was worth every penny, if just to see this reaction.
"Well...if I've actually found a way of keeping you quiet for more than two seconds...then the evening can't be a total loss." She tells him.
"Domino, you look...um..uh.." Cable stutters.
Dom reaches out and takes his hand, gives him a playful wink and says, "Don't worry, Big Guy. You expression says it all. That's why I love to play poker with you. Didn't you say something about being late?"
"Uh...yeah...yes..right. Professor: Transmode Port: Two--" Cable mumbles.
"Nathan? Are you quite all right? Your body temperature and blood pressure are--" Professor begins.
"Yes, I'm fine. Just do it." Cable blushes even deeper, while Dom winks back at Theresa's 'thumbs up' from behind Nathan.
"Do what, Nathan? I am not familiar with a 'transmode port' if you could clarify I would be happy to get you one." Professor replies.
"Transport mode. A Body-Slide, Professor, by two to New York City. Now, please." Cable pronounces every syllable with the utmost care and deliberation.
"Of course. One might have said so in the first place." Professor replies testily.

Nathan opens the door to the restaurant and takes Dom's arm in his. Not trusting himself to speak, yet.
"Reservation for Dayspring." Cable tells the waiter.
"Ah, Mister Dayspring. Good to see you. We held your special table, just as you requested." The waiter replies and leads them to their table.
"Gotta hand it to you, Nathan. Central Park is lovely this time of year." Dom tells him.
"Well, it was either this, or Big Macs in Paris." Cable replies.
"I love Paris." Dom tells him.
"Paris, Oklahoma?" Cable replies, then adds an "Oh!" as Dom gives him a playful kick under the table. "Kidding. I was just kidding, Dom."
"Nate, let's play a game." Dom tells him.
"What kind of game?" Cable asks.
"Think of it as...a sort of...'getting to know' you game. You're stranded on a desert island--" Dom begins.
"I've been stranded on a desert island. It wasn't any fun." Cable interrupts.
"Nate, shut up and listen. You can only have with you one book, one piece of music, and just one other person. Who and what would you bring?" Dom asks.
"The book would have to be 'The Art Of War' by--" Cable begins.
"I know who it's by. Go on." She tells him.
"And I'd pick 'Sinatra At The Sands, 1966' for the music." He tells her.
"Hmmm, interesting...and the person?" She asks.
"I'd want Scott to be there. My...dad." He replies.
"Nathan, you surprise me." Dom says, as she reaches across the table and takes his hand.
"'Cause if anyone could figure out how to get us off that island, it'd be Scott." Cable adds and bursts out laughing, which earns him another kick.
"Okay, your turn." He tells her.
"'Alice In Wonderland' definitely. Harrison Ford. And--" She begins.
"Harrison Ford?!" Cable asks.
"Hey, it's my desert island." She winks at him.
"And for music--" She begins again.
"That's easy, 'Streisand's Broadway Album.'" Cable says with a huge grin.
"I hate Streisand." Dom replies coldly.
"What are you talking about? You listen to that album all the--" Cable starts to say, and suddenly the second ice age descends upon him.
"That was Vanessa." Dom tells him, with icicles hanging from each word. "Idiot."
As a wall of ice forms between them, there is utter silence for over a minute, when Cable sees someone familiar in the distance.
"I've...um...uh..excuse me." He tells her, as he rises and takes off at a brisk walk going back trough the restaurant and exiting out the front.
He circles back around going through the deepest shadows and approaches the girl nestled in the bushes silently. When he is near enough he takes her down in a flying tackle, then pulls her up and pins her with her back to a tree.
"Thornn! If you and the rest of The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants think you can catch me unaware, think again!" Cable tells her.
"I'm here alone. But if it's a fight you want, I'll defend myself to the death!" Thornn tells him, as she bares her claws and strikes.
Cable sensing her attack, leaps back, but her claws rip his shirt and jacket open.
"I should have known better." Thornn tells him, right before she is knocked to the ground by Domino's spin kick from behind her.
"You got that right!" Dom tells her, then turns to Nathan and says, "Nate, you pork chops were getting cold."
"Thornn, what's this about? What did you mean, you're here alone?" Cable asks her.
"I left the Brotherhood after you had Masque killed. Only to return to the Morlocks and find that a madman was leading them. Look, if I'm ever going to be able to save my people--" Thornn begins.
"Thornn, the Morlocks are dead." Cable tells her.
"Are they? If they are...then I'm going insane." Thornn tells them, as she begins to cry. "But if there's a chance that they did survive, and I have reason to believe that they did....Cable, you don't know how hard this is for me...I need your help."

An hour later, deep beneath the streets of New York.
"Terrific. This is exactly what I had in mind when I bought this dress." Dom tells him.
"You didn't have to come." Cable replies.
"And let you have all the fun?" She tells him.
"I know neither of you believe me. But after the flood, I wandered the tunnels for months. Hoping someone else survived. Then...I saw her. She was there...and not there. She said at the last moment, Mikhail had taken them to another place. A place just out of reach." Thornn tells them.
"Nate, where's the upside to this?" Dom asks him.
"I...don't know. I sense she's telling the truth." Cable tells her.
"Best case scenario, she is insane." Dom says.
"Then she needs our help. Even more than Feral did." Cable replies.
"Worst case, we're walking right into a trap." Dom tells him.
"HEY! You two! I saw her! She's down here!" Thornn yells from about fifty feet ahead of them.
"I don't see anything, Nate, do you?" Dom asks.
"Nothing I can see, but...there's something...maybe...like a child's whisper." Cable replies.
"That's her! That's Sarah! She said the others are afraid to come out, unless we perform the Ceremony Of The Light." Thornn tells them.
"O-Kay. That's it. I don't know about the two of you, but I'm due back on planet Earth." Dom tells them.
"Domino, hold up a minute." Cable says, taking her by the arm. "Please."
"What do we need her for anyway? If she wants to leave, she should leave." Thornn tells him.
"Fine with me. When I agreed to a night in New York, I didn't mean in the sewers." Dom snaps back.
"Dom, don't leave just yet." Cable says and turns towards Thornn, "And you, Thornn, given our history, you'd better start being a lot more cooperative. If you want any help at all."
"Okay." Thornn replies meekly.
"Now, it's late. We've got work to do. But if Thornn here can show us how to perform this 'Ceremony Of The Light' and there's the slightest chance the Morlocks are still alive, then let's do it!" Cable tells them.

They work together through the night. Even though Cable and Domino have little idea what it is they are creating. Old mirrors, hubcaps, bottles and polished street signs are aligned in certain places up and down the tunnel.
Thornn tries to explain the meaning of The Ceremony Of The Light. How, once a year, for a single hour, the Morlocks allowed the light into the tunnels. As a bridge to the outside world which feared them. It was a symbolic act that someday they might all cross that bridge, and return to the world above. Accepted and loved.
Finally, comes the dawn. And there is only one task left to do. Cable telekinetically lifts the man-hole cover high above off, letting in the light.
They say when you see the Sistine Chapel for the first time, you cannot speak. Its majesty can literally take you breath away. What is shown to Cable and Domino by the sunlight has the same effect.
For an untold time, the Morlocks had worked the weathered stone beneath the streets of New York with images of beauty that came from their hearts and not their minds.
For an entire hour, the world below is not a scary place or an awful place...it is only a lonely place without its chosen people.
Then the sun moves out of position. Darkness returns.
Thornn weeps.
For in that single hour, the soul of the Morlock people stood revealed. And the tragedy of their destruction seems all the more overwhelming.
"Nathan, Look!" Dom says, wiping her own tears away and taking Nathan's hand in her own.
"I see her." Cable replies, his own voice thick with unshed tears of sheerest joy at the sight of the tiny little girl.
"I told you she was real!" Thornn tells them.
"The ceremony was beautiful...but, I'm sorry to say...that the others are still too frightened to come out...they won't cross over from the other side." Little Sarah tells them.
"Child, we can help you. Let me speak to the others." Cable tells her.
"Sarah, you'll stay with me...won't you?" Thornn asks.
"Can't" Sarah replies.
"No..please....don't leave me.." Thornn pleads.
"I'll come back, someday. I promise." Sarah tells her, as she backs into the shadows and disappears once more.
"Don't...leave...me..all alone..." Thornn falls forward on the tunnels cobblestone crying uncontrollably.
Cable reaches down and pulls the young girl to her feet and wipes the tears from her cheeks.
"Thornn, you don't have to be alone. We know people who can help you. Come with us." Cable tells her.
"No. I belong down here...waiting for my friends...in the shadows..." With this Thornn too steps in the now dark tunnels and disappears.

Domino, wipes her own eyes and takes both of Nathan's hands in hers and pulls him close.
"Nathan, tonight turned out to be very special. You scored some points, after all." Dom whispers to him.
"Really? I thought...I mean we never got dinner...and...you mean I'm not in trouble?" He asks, kissing the top of her head.
"Well, I am still hungry..." Dom replies.
"I know a stand off 53rd that makes a mean chili dog." Cable tells her." Cable tells her.
"Perfect." Dom says, pulling him closer, "And Nate...the music I'd take with me on the desert island..."
"Yeah?" Nathan asks.
"'Never Mind The Bollocks' by the Sex Pistols." She tells him, as she takes his hand and leads him back up...
...into the light.

Our Journey Continues With
The Phalanx Covenant

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